A poker game is played by a group of people around a table. They each place a number of chips in front of them, and they can choose to call or raise whenever it is their turn. The object of the game is to win money from opponents by getting a good hand. A player can also choose to fold if they do not have a strong hand. The winning player takes all the money in the pot and ends the round.
A strong poker hand can consist of a pair, three of a kind, four of a kind, or a straight. A pair consists of two cards of the same rank, three other unmatched cards, or one card that is higher than both. A three of a kind consists of 3 matching cards of one rank, and a straight is 5 consecutive cards of different suits.
To be a good poker player, you must know your opponents well. You need to be able to read their body language and their tells. A tell is an unconscious habit a player has that reveals information about their hand. It can be something as simple as a change in eye contact or as complex as a gesture.
Depending on the game, there may be a dealer who is responsible for shuffling and dealing cards to each player. This person is usually a player, but some games use a non-player to be the dealer. The dealer chip is passed on to a new player each round, and the holder of the chip has certain betting privileges.